In this lesson we are going to practice one of the most powerful relationship skills in existence. It can change the course of your entire relationship in just five minutes. It can add much more intimacy day to day. It can get you almost everything you want from your mate easily and pleasantly. That’s why we call this the #1 Most Amazing Relationship Skill.

What is this skill? It is Making Intimate Requests. Making requests is a skill that makes a big difference in relationships. All of your relationships. You may think you already know how to make requests – and you do – however few of us ever were taught the power of how to make requests that can change the future of entire relationships in just a few minutes. Add this to what you know about making requests and with a little practice you will master one of the most powerful and enjoyable relationship skills available!

Making intimate requests is a skill that can change your:

• Love life
• Your work life.
• Your relationships with your kids.

This is about getting your needs met through others. It’s a very powerful skill for getting your needs met - getting what YOU WANT from other people.

Now, you may think you're already pretty good at making requests, and you probably are - but most likely not in the way that you are about to learn.

We're going to teach you a level of skill that will not only change your love life but can make you lots of money as well.

You can get paid $100,000 + a year for mastering the skill of making requests.

and there are lots of jobs like that for people who get good at it. At the end of the course I'll tell you what those jobs are.

All you need to do now is relax, follow along, and participate in the exercises so let’s dive in.

1. WE ALL HAVE NEEDS!

The first thing to get very clear about is that we all have needs! We have needs for quiet time around the house. We have needs for love and intimacy. We have needs for respect and to be treated decently by bosses and coworkers. We have needs for more money. We have needs to play and have fun!

All of us have needs!

And when we aren't getting our needs met we get: (choose your favorites)

• Crabby
• irritable
• afraid
• worried
• anxious
• unpleasant.

Look, if you've worked all day and come home you may "need" ten minutes of peace and quiet before starting dinner or whatever. Just ten minutes to relax and kick off your shoes and breathe. But if your kids are running and screaming through the house you aren't getting that need met. So instead of ten minutes of peace and quiet you find yourself pissed off and yelling at your kids.

When you have needs and they aren't getting met you don't feel or operate very well.

And there's a part of us that feels funny about having needs, or needing to tell someone what we need, like somehow we shouldn't have to or that we shouldn't need anything from anyone or good girls don't ask or whatever. We all have some funny wiring about simply

RECOGNIZING OUR NEEDS AND ASKING OTHERS TO MEET THEM.

What are some of the things you need in your intimate relationship? Take a moment and think about it and list your needs here:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Does your list include some of these?

PLAY – you need to play with your mate. Have fun. You got or get into relationships in part to have someone to play with. Sex, movies, dancing, exercising together, dining together, etc are some of the ways we adults like to play with each other.

If you aren’t playing OFTEN in your relationship, then you aren’t having much fun together.

Please rate (just for fun!) your relationship with a number from 1(low) –10(high) on how much play you now have with your mate: ______________ There is no right answer, at this point just be honest and put the number that seems best to you.

INTIMACY - Feeling connected, feeling heard, feeling loved and supported and KNOWN by another are vital to each of us. Another major drive for each human being is to experience intimacy. We get into relationships to feel appreciated, understood, cared for by another human being. If you or your mate don’t feel connected (it happens to all of us at times) you begin to feel more isolated and less intimate.

Please rate (don’t get too serious, this is still just for fun!) your relationship with a number from 1(low) –10(high) on how much intimacy you now generally feel with your mate: ______________ There is no right answer, at this point just be honest and put the number that seems best to you.

COOPERATION – One of the things we all need from our relationships is cooperation. Compromise. A feeling that we can work together in win/win ways. Besides play and intimacy at times relationships are two people with very different sets of needs pulling in very different directions. That is fine, perfect, normal, entirely okay. You want Italian, he wants Mexican. You want a new motorcycle, she wants to go to Hawaii with that money. You want alone time, he wants to cuddle.

When different needs and desires arise and sometimes conflict – all of which will occur in a healthy relationship from time to time - you want to feel that you can work that out. That your needs will be respected and that you’ll work towards some kind of win/win resolution to such conflict, as opposed to screaming matches or sulky withdrawals into silence or manipulative emotional/sexual blackmail.

Please rate your relationship with a number from 1(low) –10(high) on how much cooperation you feel with your mate: ______________ There is no right answer, at this point just be honest and put the number that seems best to you.

Other answers that might be on your list are sexuality, raising a family/parenting styles, financial support, socializing, etc. Whatever is important to you in the area of relationship is okay. Your needs are okay. Your wants are okay. We all have them, and they make relationships such fun and fascinating roller coaster rides.

Relationships are much more difficult/unpleasant when you aren’t getting your needs met. And relationships can be very confusing and unsteady when you don’t even know what your needs are!

So again, take a moment and write down three needs that are most important to you in your relationship:

1. ___________________________________
2. ___________________________________
3. ___________________________________

Now that you know you have a need, the question becomes what's the best way to get it met?

• MINDREADING
• SCREAMING
• POUTING AND SULKING
• BITCHING AND NAGGING
• THEY SHOULD JUST KNOW WHAT WE WANT

Recognize any of these behaviors? Oftentimes we want our mates to just "know" what we need, and when we feel bad we scream or pout or fight or withdraw from our loved ones.

Next time you find yourself feeling frustrated with your mate, try something much more powerful than nagging or fighting. Try this:

THE BEST WAY TO GET WHAT YOU WANT IS TO ASK FOR IT!!

But we oftentimes don't act like that's the best way. We tend to automatically assume others should just know what we want or know what we need or we come across like we shouldn't have to ask or we think something is wrong with us if other people are treating us badly.

So the first thing to understand is that

THE BEST WAY TO GET WHAT YOU WANT IS TO ASK FOR IT!!

The next thing to repeat is that when you aren't getting your needs or wants met, you will tend to feel bad, bothered, annoyed. It's only human.

So, one of the first powerful steps to getting what you want in life is to

GLADLY NOTICE WHEN SOMETHING BOTHERS YOU!

"Oh, you know, I don't like the way my boss treats me at work!"

"Oh, I don't like having to fight with my kids every nite to get them to go to bed."

"Oh, it bothers me when my boyfriend has been drinking a lot then wants to come see me!"

When something bothers you that's a sign that there's a request that needs to be made!

The other person is clearly not reading your mind!

2. RELATIONSHIPS

Relationships are one of the keys to life. Unless you plan on retiring to a cave and being a hermit, much of the quality of your life is determined by the quality of your relationships.

Here is a useful way of looking at relationships.

RELATIONSHIPS, PERSONAL AND AT WORK, ARE ABOUT PEOPLE MAKING CHOICES TO BE TOGETHER AND PLAY TOGETHER, PERIOD.

Making requests is an invitation, It lets people know what works for you, and it sets up a way to play together:

Would you play with me, mommy?

Will you go have dinner with me on Friday night?

Do you want to go see that movie tonight?

Boss, can you give me some more hours?

Would you eat your vegetables, please?

Requests are an invitation to do something with or through another person.

So if someone asks if you want to have dinner on Friday night, they are saying

Over here, in my universe, I want to spend some time with you, so could we play by perhaps having dinner together Friday night.

Now you, over in your universe, get to decide if you want to play that way. If you aren't interested, you say, "No thanks, I don't want to go to dinner."

If you do want to play together with that person for a few hours, you say, "Yeah, sure, let's do it!"

Then you know if and when you're going to play together with another person in a certain way.

CHINESE vs MEXICAN!

Now, if he picks you up and takes you to a Chinese restaurant, and you hate Chinese food, if you don't let him know by making a request to go get Mexican you may sit through the meal and not have a very good time.

He's wondering what's wrong, you're trying to be nice, and if you'd just asked and let him know how you want to play together with what kind of food, you could have played and had more fun by making that request!

When people make requests of you they are simply asking if you want to play a certain way.

If the boss says "Hey, I need you to come in on your day off,"

It may not sound like a request, but it is. In her universe, she needs you at work to play your role on your day off.

In your universe, its your day off, and you don't have to go in. Her request may seem like a command, but even with bosses, requests are invitations to play. You never have to do what a boss tells you to (at the least you have a free choice to quit).

WHEN RELATIONSHIPS LOSE THEIR PLAY AND FUN, THEY HEAD TOWARDS ARGUING, SEPARATION AND DIVORCE.

So again, if you aren't happy in a relationship, you probably aren't playing together very well.

Your mate views things in her own way. You can't read her mind or get inside her head. The only way you can really know what's going on with her is if she tells you (nonverbal communication IS a form of communication sometimes).

Just so, you live in your own universe, subjectively. As close as the two of you are, lovers, partners, husband and wife, you can’t really read each other’s mind or know what's going on with your mate unless they tell you.

Each one of us lives in our own heads. We see the world in our own way. A relationship is a way for two people who see the world differently to play together objectively, out here in the real world.

If you aren't getting what you want in your relationships, maybe you simply need to get better at making requests. And when you do, you’ll often find that

PEOPLE WANT TO SAY YES! THEY WANT TO PLAY! THEY WANT TO BE SEEN AS GOOD PEOPLE AND TO BE LIKED!

You can change your life and your family's life in a few minutes by making requests.

Randy and Sue have been married for six years. They have two kids and Randy has recently been promoted. But lately, Sue notices Randy has been going off to the bar three and four nights a week. He gets home from work, has dinner, then says he's going to meet friends for a game of pool. He usually then comes home at 11 or twelve, rarely drunk but usually having had a few drinks.

Sue, having been incredibly wise enough to learn the skill of making intimate requests, understands that Randy has made a "unilateral decision." Without ever asking her, he decided it was okay to go off to the bar pretty much as often as he pleased and to leave her with all the child-rearing responsibilities. Tonight, before he leaves again, Sue decides to make a request to change this course of affairs and add to the intimacy in their relationship.

"Honey, can we talk for a few minutes?" she asks.

"Well dear," he responds, "I was supposed to meet Joe 10 minutes ago at the bar. Can it wait?"

"Really, you masculine mountain of manhood, I'd rather talk to you now, while you are still completely sober..."

"Are you implying that I'm a drunken bum when I get home at night?"

"Not normally, but that is what I wanted to talk to you about. I've noticed in the last few months that you've been spending most of your week nights at the Beer Belly Bar. You aren't spending hardly any time with me and the kids. I'd like to ask that you spend only one night a week at the bar, and that the rest of the time you find ways to spend time with me and the kids. I don't want to raise them alone!" There, she had said it, and she felt better already.

"Are you saying that I'm not a good husband and father?" Randy asked tightly.

"Not at all, we love spending time with you on the weekends, but just the weekends isn't enough. Could you please consider cutting way back on your bar time and add to your family time?"

"Well," Randy replies defensively, "since my promotion I've been sitting on my butt all day, and after dinner all we seem to do around here is sit and watch tv. I need to spend more time being active, and at the Beer Belly I'm on my feet the whole night around the pool table. I don't want to sit around here all night!"

"Oh, I see, " Sue responds using her new found mirroring or active listening skills. "You like going to the bar because it gets you off your butt?"

"Yes," he says, beginning to relax as he feels that he is being understood. "That's pretty much why I go. Sitting around watching tv just isn't doing it for me."

"I understand," Sue replies without taking offense, even though it seemed to her that he was the one that always plopped in front of the tv after dinner. "How about if we came up with some family activities that wouldn't involve tv? You see, honey, I don't want to raise the kids all by myself, except with a little help from you on weekends. Perhaps after dinner we could take the kids on walks down by the creek, and Jimmy is getting to the point where you could teach him to play some ball. And you know how Jill loves to kick the soccer ball around with you. But what I'd like is if you wouldn't spend more than your usual Friday night at the bar, and plan the rest of your time with us. Is that okay?"

"Well, I guess the little spudsters could use some playing time with a master athlete such as myself, and I suppose also it isn't fair that you have to put up with most of the arguing and refusing to go to bed, so I guess I can spend some more time around here." Randy decides hesitantly.

"I really appreciate that, dear, but could your less time at the bar go back to only your usual Friday nights, so we can plan to see you and spend time with your magnificent self the rest of the week?"

"Trying to pin me down, are you?" Randy looks at her closely, surprised by her newfound forthrightness.

"Well, yes, dear, I am," she says, "because I don't want a barfly for a husband, I want the hot stud I married, and when you come home after a night in someone's Beer Belly you stink like cigarette smoke and you are usually too tired to be Mr. Manhood in the sack," she winks at him. "So I want to know if you are planning on more time there or here." Once again, she is repeating her request, because she realizes she hasn't gotten a direct answer yet.

"Okay, sure, insult my incredible lovemaking abilities, hit me below the belt." He thought for a moment. "How about this. Friday night as usual, plus an hour or so after work two other weekdays, for a few quick games of pool with Joe. Then the rest of the time you guys can hog all of my attention and receive the many benefits of spending time in my presence. How's that?"

Sue realizes that this is a great offer, it will work much better than the present arrangement, and it should add much to the quality of family time. "Okay, sweetie, sounds good to me. We'll try not to get too overwhelmed by all your wonderfulness, but it will be good to have you around here more!"

And in that short five minute conversation Sue has changed the course of intimacy in their relationship!

Randy had made some unilateral, one-sided choices that took away or were leading away from intimacy, and Sue took an unobtrusive but firm lead in moving things towards closeness and more quality time. Instead of bitching at him and trying to make him feel guilty, or instead of yelling and screaming or pouting, she did a very powerful thing. She asked. She made a request. She let him know by doing so that she had a different idea for some of the choices that he was making that affected their relationship.

In a hundred million relationships the world over men and women are making choices that can lead away from intimacy. Remember that you are a full partner with full responsibility in your relationship for its quality and depth. While men will often tend to lead, make the big decisions, and "take charge," this is fine only to the extent that it doesn't damage or decrease the level of bonding in your relationship. At any time you see that his choices or behaviors are doing that, it is time for you to make requests of him to change that behavior and/or reconsider those choices.

Pouting, attacking, blaming and whining are also methods women have used for centuries to try to alter men's behavior, but none of these techniques are as powerful and effective as simply getting clear on what you want then ASKING him for it.

Don't let your mate make one-sided choices that decrease or negatively affect the intimacy in your relationship!

You will be amazed. Men actually do understand English (or whatever language the both of you speak). Men do have a clear interest in cooperating with you to create and increase intimacy. When you can speak to them clearly and specifically communicate how what you want will add to or improve your relationship, many times they will just say yes.

You have incredible power to alter the course of your relationship, for good or ill! Whining and bitching a lot can change the quality of your relationship, though probably for the worse. Making requests, communicating and compromising can allow the both of you to make MUTUAL CHOICES that add to your closeness. All a relationship is is a set of mutual choices. You choose to stay together, to eat together, to play together, or you don't.

The more conscious mutual choices you make, generally the more you will experience closeness and togetherness. Repeat after me: "The more conscious mutual choices we make, the more we will experience closeness and togetherness." Obviously, you don't have to make all of your choices the same, but you have to make enough mutual choices to enable each of you to feel nurtured and good about your time together and apart.

Make requests, allow your mate to respond however she/he does, and negotiate.

Making requests isn't about getting your way! It is a tool for co-creation.

Co-creation is a key concept here! You want to fully participate in co-creating intimacy with your mate lest it disappear! Men generally have only crude intimacy skills and if you leave love and nurturing and bonding up to them, it is quite likely to dissolve! You know the drill - at first, lots of passion and love and sex, then lots of passion and sex, then eventually just some mechanical sex, with the both of you feeling something is missing.

Here’s an example that just about everyone should recognize. If it hasn’t directly happened to you, it has happened to several women you know:

Nancy meets Joe. Sparks fly! Joey is sweet and gentle and Nancy particularly likes that Joey talks to her, sharing his feelings. He seems to really care about her opinions and what she has to say. When they make love Joey is strong and passionate and not in a hurry. Nancy is beginning to get really excited.

Finally, a man with some feelings, a man who respects her, a man she could fall in love with. Things go fine for the first month. They have cozy dinners, talk a lot and see each other four or five times a week. Nancy finds sex with him to be more abandoned and uninhibited and exciting than she can ever recall. Nancy is in love and feels loved in return! She is giving herself completely to this man and can finally foresee a long and loving relationship developing.

Then, trouble! One evening, about five weeks into their relationship, Joey comes over and tells her, apologetically, that they need him to work double shifts at the computer company. They are behind on some big orders and as he is mid-level management they are counting on him to help get the company through. And well, since he needs the money, he’s going to do it, and now he can only see her about once every week or maybe even two! It should only be for about four months and then the big backlog will be reduced...

Nancy is stunned! (Aren’t you?? This is a true story, "Joey" actually said this, and you probably have heard your own similar story or at the least have known this to happen to more than one girlfriend.) Things had been going so good! Joey had been telling her that he had never met anyone like her and that sex had never been so rich and fulfilling for him. Now what was happening, all of a sudden and out of the blue??

What could she do? What could she say?? She wants to yell and scream at him, but knows that probably won’t work. Not wanting to pressure him, yet very disappointed that apparently her feelings weren’t truly reciprocated, she meekly acquiesces. "Well, Joey, if you have to do this to make enough money to get caught up, I guess I can understand. I’ll miss you but..."

"Great, honey, thanks for understanding," Joey replies. "I have to go back for my double shift starting tonite, but I’ll call you soon!"

As he walks out the door Nancy has this funny feeling that he is out of her life forever.

Crushed, she wonders what happened. Was it an excuse? Was there another woman? Was he afraid of intimacy? Would she ever find another man like him? Why were men so incredibly stupid anyway?? She’s given him her heart and her body and her soul - what the hell more could a man want??

But, like too many women, Nancy will never really know, and she may never really be able to trust men easily again... And Joey, for his part, has just re-enacted a male pattern that has been taking advantage of women for centuries! He gave her lots of communication and attention, got lots of sex in return, and after a time was ready to pull back to avoid commitment. Now, the way he left it, he could see her once a week and have sex if he wanted, or he could disappear and find another woman, and maybe keep Nancy on the side....Has Joey just pulled off the somewhat infamous love em and leave em?

And why does this need to happen? There Nancy was, going along co-creating an exciting, intimate relationship with Joey, things are going great. Then, when Joey acts completely out of character, the first thing Nancy does is go at the effect of HIS decision. She becomes the victim. "Well, he really does need to get caught up on his bills from the divorce, and his company really does need double shifts right now, it was in the paper, so..."

What Nancy could have done at that point was to avoid being an intimacy victim and remember that it is often a woman’s job to co-create the bonding in the relationship. This always means that there are TWO people making decisions, never just one. Joey unilaterally and with seeming little regard for Nancy’s feelings made a decision that affected them both.

Nancy (and all women) can do well to remember that men no longer get to make one-sided decisions about anything that affects BOTH of them. Women must assert themselves and push to take part in all choices and decisions that affect them both. In this case, all Nancy needed to do was to express her feelings and choices. After all, he had just expressed his!

She could understand that he needed to work more. But seeing Joey once every week or two was a bit ridiculous! She wanted him to make time to see her at least twice a week for the duration of this work backlog. She could feel comfortable with that. And if he didn’t want to make the time to do that, if he didn’t care enough about her and what was growing between them to do that, then would he please just tell her up front and they could end it honestly?

That would force him to re-evaluate his unilateral decision and to reconsider. He could now participate with her in making a mutual decision. If he really was just running from commitment, he would at least have to fess up to it!

And in actuality, that is what happened. She called him at work and made her requests. He was able to agree to see her twice a week. He never fessed up to being frightened of commitment, but the 4 month job turned out to last only one month, and after only two weeks he stopped working six double shifts and dropped back to three double shifts per week. They were able to continue their relationship, because Nancy refused to let him make a unilateral decision that affected both of them.

The moral of that bedtime story is: Don’t let one mate make unilateral decisions that dissolve intimacy! They will if they can get away with it, despite themselves! But when you respond with intimate requests or counter-requests of your own, you move to co-create intimacy rather than become a victim of it!

The male intimacy model is usually very simple.

Since they confuse sex with intimacy, their general idea to create intimacy is to go to bed with a woman. Forget sharing their hearts, forget empathizing, forget being other-focused on a regular basis, forget nurturing. Some or all of these may have been necessary to get you into the sack, but once they are going to bed with you regularly, they can quickly forget all of those things. That’s it, they’re sleeping with you, what else could you possibly want in the way of intimacy?? It really is a very simple intimacy model!

This model of course leaves a lot to be desired, and of course it leaves the men shortchanged as well. Most of the time they aren’t connected, they aren’t empathizing, they are walled off from your heart and theirs, so after a while they start feeling empty again. Feeling empty was why they felt driven to get you into bed with them. At first, the sex was helping them feel bonded. But sex can never replace intimacy (as we’ll discuss at length when we get to Sexual Sublimation). After a while, they won’t feel much intimacy with you either, so they’ll think about moving on to find that "intimacy" between another woman’s legs. Nothing personal, it is just the way the primitive male intimacy model works.

Out of this rather silly intimacy model will come such senseless requests as Joey’s. If you haven’t heard that one you probably have heard your own versions of silly unilateral decisions from the mouths of men. Are we cute or what?

Now you know to just smile and nod pleasantly, then make a counteroffer or request of your own. You know that you can guide your man out of the trap of his own adolescent testosterone intimacy structure!

This is not an insult of men in any way. Obviously, each man is at a different place in his emotional development. I’m speaking in generalities here. Men are marvelous, powerful, warm, loving beings. And, most all of us men have at core some fairly Neanderthal intimacy patterns.

So make intimate requests as often as it seems appropriate for you. From taking out the trash to how you have sex, intimate requests should become a constant part of your love life. If he or she declines one of your requests, that's okay, it happens, relationships are voluntary. Just so, if you decline one of your partner’s there is no need to feel guilty or bad.

Any request is simply a statement of how a person wants you to play. If you want to play that way, great! If you don't want to play that way, make a counter offer or simply decline. That is the way the game is played. Guilt and feeling bad and trying to covertly manipulate are extras that you add on, extras that often "gum up" the quality of closeness rather than add to it.

Have fun with requests, practice it week to week, both making your requests and responding to his, and see how you can use this tool to consciously add to the richness of your relationship.

With any intimate request you make, there are only three basic things that can happen:

One is they'll say yes. Are you awesome or what??

Two is that they'll counteroffer, come back with a different idea or suggestion. If this is acceptable, you agree. If it isn't, you negotiate or repeat your request. The key here is to look for a win/win.

The third possible reaction to any of your requests is that he or she will decline; say no or ignore it (same thing). This will happen often and you’re about to learn a very powerful way to deal with people saying NO to you.

DEALING WITH NO!

The first secret to learn about rejection is that it really is okay if people say NO to your requests. Sometimes people want to play with us, sometimes they don't want to. If he says NO, usually it isn't the end of the relationship and life as you know it. Sulking and pouting and getting even are EXTRA, things you add to his "no" that can really muck up the works for the both of you. Feeling bad about someone else's choices really is extra, you don't have to add that to the "no."

"Do you want to play? ...NO? ...then piss off, I don't want to play with you either!" In the process of life, we all seem to pick up the idea that rejection is bad, that NO is something to take terribly personally, and that it must be resisted.

You can create it that way subjectively for yourself, but those reality tunnels are pretty dark and unpleasant to go down, as we all know far too well. When you get practice at making requests, at co-creating an exceptional relationship through asking, inviting, and guiding, you will probably find yourself making lots of requests. Some he will agree to, some he may not, some he may take a while to mull over before changing his behavior.

Just because he says No now doesn't mean his behavior won't change anyway.

A refusal is just a snapshot of where a person is at when you ask. Particularly with men, who often have that automatic "no response" to requests - yours or anybody else’s. Later that day or that week he may really get into the idea. Or he may come up with a creative substitute that will be just as good or even better! Men really do want to play with you, men really do want to please and be seen as loving and giving and cooperative.

People only nag and hassle each other when they aren't getting what they want and aren't getting "heard." It's one thing if he says "no" to some of your intimate requests, its another entirely if he ignores or doesn't even listen to you. Making specific intimate requests will make sure that you first get "heard." Second, it will give you a method for gaining his willing cooperation to play in ways that build intimacy.

As we all know from childhood (hopefully) if you ask for what you want cheerfully and with pleasure, you are probably a lot more likely to get it. If you ask someone to play enthusiastically, they are a lot more likely to want to play with you. And if someone says NO, they don't want to play with you right now, they may "come over" later that day or tomorrow and ask you to play with them!

IT’S OKAY IF PEOPLE SAY NO. LET THEM!

No need to go into a breakdown and "oh my god this is terrible" mode! You want to know if people want to play the way you do. Saves on lots of sabotage and other relationship problems.

If someone says no you at least know how you aren't going to play together! You have clarity!

We get very weird and funny about making requests because we don't like rejection. We are afraid if people say no that we'll get into a fight or a battle. So we often don't make requests because we have a subconscious fear of people saying no.

When you were a kid, you'd go knock on somebody's door and ask if they wanted to come out and play. If they didn't, you maybe didn't like it, but you went on and asked somebody else or did something else. Kids have very little trouble asking for what they want.

But now, as adults, we have all this baggage around people saying no and being rejected, so often times we are afraid to ask people for what we want. And its very hard to get what you want if you don't ask!

So when we don't get what we want, if people say no,

we pout,

or we attack,

or we cry,

and the relationship suffers. Or if we don't get what we want

we quit our jobs

or whine

and complain.

Or when we don't get what we want we scream at our kids instead of talk to them and we beat them out of frustration. All of these are damaging ways of dealing with no, and now you have a choice to deal much more positively.

THE AUTOMATIC NO.

Sometimes people, men in particular, automatically say no to any request. It's almost a territorial or domination thing, they want to protect their turf and they do so by saying no. Yes, they want to please you, they want to be liked, to be seen as good people, but there is this kind of automatic no that pops out to most any request. Your request becomes a domination issue for a man, and he says no to subjectively stake his territory, show you that he can’t be pushed around.

If you have kids, you've seen this automatic no before, right? There's an age where they just like saying no.

Well, as adults, learn this simple technique taught in most good sales classes:

When people say no to you, simply let them, then ask again!

Don't be stopped by the first no! Don't argue scream or shout! You can often make a no "disappear" by allowing it rather than fighting it!

Mirror their no, let them know you heard it, then ask again!

Often, once the first automatic no is out of the way, they can get right to yes! Rule of thumb, if you ask them three times and they still say no, take it as a no and let it go for now.

You can always ask again tomorrow!

When you don't get put off by no's, when you can still be pleasant and ask again, companies will pay you lots for that skill. They call those jobs management or sales!

Are you beginning to realize the scope and power of developing skill in making requests?

PLAY is the key concept here.

As we’ve said, you, he, we all want to play in our relationships, we want to have fun, make lots of Love, explore and adventure together. If you are not experiencing your relationship as play, this is often a signal that you need to make intimate requests to change your mate’s behavior or to change the way you two interact in some areas. Making a request is simply asking your partner to play a certain way in the game of relationship. It is important to remember that when you make an intimate request of your partner, you are asking him to play with you in a certain way. But what a lot of us tend to do is make a huge deal of it before hand, we imagine awful resistance in our heads, and so we ask with too much weight and seriousness and give the wrong idea. Making requests is asking someone to play with you!

Use Humor

When making requests, remember to ask your mate to play with humor, with enthusiasm, with joy, pleasantly. USE HUMOR!

"Hey, hon, how about if we tried this???"

"Look, you big stud you, do you think you could do this for me?"

"Oh Prince my Prince, would you please..."

"Hey, silly, I would really like it if you..."

When making requests starts looking to you like it is a fight, a battle of wills, back off! Then lighten up! It isn't the end of the world.

It isn't even the end of the world when the request you really want your mate to agree with gets refused.

If they say no, no way, nada, get out of town, asta lavista baby then you get to practice dealing with no effectively.

So lighten up about this whole request thing! It is powerful, it is remarkable, it can change the entire future of your relationship for the better, it can make you a person co-creating the intimacy dance rather than settling for what morsels you occasionally get. AND it is about playing.

SUMMARY:

1. Notice when something about your lover, or your child, or a workmate bothers you. Then see if there is some request that you could make of that person to change a particular behavior.

2. Formulate as specific a request as possible. "Stop doing that!" is generally not going to be very effective. "Would you..." or "Could you..." or "It would be great if you ..." What is it that you want to see them do differently? The more exact your request, the greater your chances of success.

3. Before you communicate your request, insert humor! Usually, when we are bothered by someone's behavior, we think of grouching and grumbling rather than laughter. It is often a good rule never to communicate a request if you are upset or unhappy. Insert HUMOR. You are inviting someone else to play with you in a way that you want them to play! Lighten up, and have some fun!

4. Communicate your request! As pleasantly, enjoyably and lightly as possible. That's right, open your mouth and SPEAK. Let it flow, baby!
5. Acknowledge his/her response, whatever it is. She or he will often say yes outright, you've succeeded! Thank him with a million kisses, or whatever. If he says no, proceed onward to step 6!

6. If your mate does say no or ignores it, don't take it personally. That life has a different viewpoint and set of priorities than you do. Let him have his response and views and opinions. Or he may just need to get that "no" out of his system. Making intimate requests is not an argument or an invitation to conflict. Allow him to have his responses to your invitation to play, whatever they are. Acknowledge him for his response.

7. If it is still important to you that this particular request get agreed to, rephrase and repeat your request up to three times. Don't quit after one. Don't stop after even two "no's." Three cheerful times in a row, with a slightly rephrased request, ask again! Don't get caught up in his no and his reasons for it. Don’t start arguing (easier said than done at first!) Just acknowledge his response and repeat your request and your reasoning for it!

Congratulations! You've probably gotten him/her to agree to your request. If not, at the very least you will have gotten him started thinking about it. He may say no now and change his behavior tomorrow or next week. Or you may have come up with an interesting compromise, or you may decide to ask again tomorrow!

Remember that relationships are a dance, a play, between two people. All you can do at times is ask your partner to dance in a certain way, then wait and see what they choose to do. If you don't ask, if you stuff your request or your irritation, it will only cause distance or distress to build up between you. Get skilled at making requests, and help along the dance between you!

5. EXERCISES:

EXERCISE One: Take two minutes and write down three things that are bothering you or irritating you at work or at home or with your kids.

One thing that’s bothering me at work is __________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

One thing that’s bothering me with my partner is ___________________________

______________________________________________________________________

One thing that’s bothering me about my kid(s) is ________ __________________

_____________________________________________________________________

Things that are bothering you are places where you aren’t playing very well, or people aren’t playing with you. Now, see what requests you could make in each of those areas to make it work better for you.

Make your requests:

• clear, specific,
• concrete,
• pleasant.

If the problem you’re having with your mate is that he isn’t very affectionate, only touching you when you have sex, you can’t say "Hey, hon, I want you to be a better lover." That isn’t clear or specific, it could mean a million different things to a million different people.

You could say "Hey, stud master, while I like our sex, it seems you never touch me outside the bedroom. I like being patted and caressed and hugged every day, could you do that more, please?" That’s clear, specific, everyone could understand it and then agree or disagree. And again, with such a clear, simple request, you can alter your entire relationship in less than five minutes.

If what’s bothering you is he doesn’t communicate with you, it doesn’t work to say

"Baby, we don’t talk to each other. Would you talk to me every day, please?"

He might think saying good morning meets that requirement. It would be better to request

"Honey, sweetums, master of my castle, we don’t seem to talk much anymore. Could you make an effort when you get home after work to tell me about your day, and to ask me about mine, and to have a conversation to connect with me before plopping on the couch and turning on the news?"

The more specific, the more likely that you’ll start getting more of what you want. Even if your mate initially says no, specific pleasant requests often have a way of getting met over time. It starts your mate thinking in the right direction, with some specifics so they can then know the kind of things you want.

DEALING WITH KIDS:

Everything here applies to kids as well. Your relationships go much better with your kids if you view your interactions as play, as win/win, where not only do you meet your kids needs but you meet yours as well.

With kids, its very important to first notice when you aren't getting your needs met. If they are running screaming through the house, or if they won't stay in bed, or if they are disrespecting you or a sibling, then you probably aren't getting your needs met.

Rather than scream or beat them, if you can notice when your boundaries are violated you can then immediately form up a request.

If they don't go along you may need to turn into a command. Stop that or you get time out in the corner!

If your kids are ignoring your requests, simply have them face the consequences (stand in a corner) and soon they’ll start choosing behaviors that don’t have negative consequences for them. Be pleasant but firm about the consequences and you’ll often find your kids become much more pleasant to be around.

SUMMARY

We all have needs and wants in life. The best way to move toward your dreams, have play and fun in your relationships, and succeed in your work life is to make requests and let others know what you want or need!

People generally want to say yes to your requests. We all want to be seen as good and helpful people.

Whenever you are bothered or upset, it’s a good sign that you should make some requests of other people in your life.

Use humor wherever possible! The more pleasant you are, the more pleasant the interaction!

Get okay with people saying no! And don't let it stop you when the request is important. Ask again.

When you can get people to pleasantly follow your requests some companies can pay you lots of money for that skill! Salespersons and managers get paid lots of money for being able to make requests and deal effectively with no.

Finally, practice this every day for a few weeks, and it will begin to become second nature. Start out with a few simple requests, then build up to major requests (stop drinking/drugging/infidelity, etc.). Practice, or this will disappear.